Tim: If you’re scared of spiders, or terrifying haircuts, you might want to turn away for the middle part of this video. Just so you know.
Tom: BLOODY HELL! I don’t know whether that’s just because you primed me with the word “spider”, but that genuinely made me jump. Gah.
Tim: Good, isn’t it? Now, sometimes I think it would be nice if we could have a selection of templates, so that if we think a track isn’t hugely interesting we could act in kind and not put much effort into reviewing.
Tom: Aha! A Forer Effect test for music – the kind of generic personality description that most people think actually applies to them.
Tim: For example, it could go like this:
Well, this starts out pleasantly and vaguely promisingly, though to be honest by end of the first verse I was getting bored. Fortunately, the chorus came along and added enough variety to keep me listening, though it fairly soon became background tab fodder and my brain just sorted of tuned out. It’s nice, I suppose, but, well, couldn’t they have brought the final chorus forward to the other ones and then spiced that bit up even more?
Tom: Yep, that’ll do. It’s surprising how much pop music fits into that template.
Tim: Because I think that sums it up fine, and you’re right, a lot of songs are like this. It would be a lot easier, therefore, if we could just copy it in.
Tom: I think in future, we just won’t cover them at all.